Four people were rescued off Brazil, after they were found to have been smuggled aboard a cargo ship departing from Nigeria and spent 13 days at sea hiding in a cavity between the hull and the rudder, Brazilian authorities said.

“Four irregular migrants were in a compartment on the helm” of the cargo ship, federal police said in a press release about the rescue operation carried out on Monday near the coast of the state of Espiritu Santo (southeast).

Visual material released the federal police picture the men sitting in the wheelhouse, between the hull and the rudder. This particular part of the ship is very often under water, it is extremely dangerous to attempt to travel like this for two weeks in the Atlantic.

“They were located by crew members” of the Liberian-flagged vessel, which “set sail from Lagos on June 27,” the statement said.

An AFP source in Brazilian police said on Tuesday that all four were “in good health” and “well fed”. “They remain under the responsibility of the Maritime Safety Authority (Agência Marítima) until they are returned to their country of origin,” the Brazilian federal police said in a statement.

A similar incident was recorded in November 2022, when three irregular migrants from Lagos arrived in the Canary Islands (Spain) after an 11-day journey hidden on the helm of a cargo ship.